Washington, DC and Chicago, IL – SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) and the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) have announced the speakers for a timely panel discussion on “Marketplace: Open Access and the changing state of scholarly publishing.” The event is being held in conjunction with the upcoming meeting of the American Library Association (ALA) in San Diego, CA.

This forum will paint a picture of the rapidly changing – and maturing – open-access publishing sphere, illustrate the growing range of options and approaches that are emerging, and help the library community to make sense of what it all means for you and your campus. Guest presenters will include:

Caroline Sutton, President of the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA), and Publisher and Co-Founder, Co-Action Publishing

Catriona McCallum, Senior Editor for PLoS Biology and Consulting Editor for PLoS ONE

The forum will be held Saturday, January 8, 2011 from 4:00 PM to 5:30 PM at the San Diego Convention Center, Room 29A. The ACRL Scholarly Communications discussion group, which offers a more intimate setting to explore topics in greater depth, will be held Sunday, January 9, from 4:00 PM to 5:30 PM at the San Diego Convention Center, Room 31B.

Additional details were previously announced and are available here. Separate registration for this event is not required.

SPARC

SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition), with SPARC Europe and SPARC Japan, is an international alliance of more than 800 academic and research libraries working to create a more open system of scholarly communication. SPARC’s advocacy, educational and publisher partnership programs encourage expanded dissemination of research. SPARC is on the Web here.

ACRL

The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), represents nearly 13,000 academic and research librarians and interested individuals. It is the only individual membership organization in North America that develops programs, products and services to meet the unique needs of academic and research librarians. Its initiatives enable the higher education community to understand the role that academic libraries play in the teaching, learning and research environments. ACRL is on the Web at http://www.acrl.org.